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By: Tom Luttermoser NASCAR history, as with any history, is filled with the age old question "What if?" Military history, Political, and sports of all sorts. We've all sat and day dreamed of this "what if" situation and if you say you haven't, you lie. So as I sit here on these slow, cold winter days in the Motor City , I think... What if?  Dale Earnhardt Jr stays with DEI- This topic can go 2 ways. "What if we never lost his father" & "what if he was given his stake in DEI." Dale Earnhardt doesn't pass in 2001.- Dale Earnhardt was pretty clearly on the later end of his career. Now, 49 was not too old back in the late 90's- early 2000's to be racing, just look at Mark Martin and Dale was not losing his competitiveness. 2000 Dale came 2nd in the Winston Cup standings just to prove the point. But his focus was coming more and more on Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and his son's career. Dale's vison for both Jr and DEI was to be competitive and win titles, so in this "what if," Jr races for his father. Dale Jr did see immediate success in his infamous #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, winning at Texas in his 12th career Cup start and scoring 17 Cup wins with DEI before moving to Hendrick in 2008. But had his father run the company, Jr never leaves. Same goes for if he had been given his stake of the business. But had Dale Jr not lost his father, not had his team messed with and not left DEI, I think Dale's already Hall of Fame career ends up even greater on track and rivals what he did off of the track as well. His 26 career wins, I think, end up in the 40's and I honestly do believe he ends up as a Sprint Cup Champion and his 2005 and 2007 season results are much better. DEI surely does not fold or end up absorbed into other teams. DEI ends up with multiple Cup and Xfinity Championships with Jr, Martin Truex Jr. and who knows who else. Image Credit: Sporting News  What if Martin Truex Jr ran a full Tier 1 Cup Career- It's no secret Martin Truex Jr will be a potential Hall of Fame driver. 31 Cup wins, 13 Xfinity wins and a single Truck win to his credit with 3 combined championships. Truex won 3 times in the first 10 years of his Cup career with DEI> Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and then Furniture Row Racing. In the last 7 years he has won 28 times and scored a Cup championship. But what if DEI wasn't on it's downfall (comparable to the Jr what if) when he was in his opening years of his career or what if he was picked up by JGR when he left DEI? What if he ran for a Tier 1 Cup team his whole career? In my opinion, there is no way it takes 10 years to become competitive, Truex could likely have become one of the winningest drivers of his era. he could have easily scored 50-60+ wins in his career and Multiple championships by now. I truly believe he is one of the greatest "what if" drivers of the last 20 years. Image Credit: The Gainsville Sun  What if we never lost Adam Petty- Adam Petty was the 4th generation racer from a family of pure royalty making him the first 4th generation athlete in American professional sports. But sadly, the Petty family lost Adam in turn 3 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to a Basilar scull fracture the same as the late Dale Earnhardt. But what if this doesn't happen? Adam's grandfather reigns supreme as the all-time race winner in the Cup Series and his father had a respectable 8 win career in Cup, but young Adam had only run 50 races in NASCAR's combined series. Adam had not yet found victory lane so it's unknown how he could have performed had he gotten his feet under him. We will never know if he would have had a career like his father or follow in the footsteps of his grandfather. Adam's legacy rests in the Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina. RIP Adam. Photo Credit: Wintheday12 on Redditt  How would Jeff Gordon's numbers look without the Chase- Jeff Gordon was arguably the most dominant force in NASCAR in the late 90's and early 2000's. So much to the point it has been admitted that NASCAR asked his former crew chief Ray Evernham to back it down. After 4 titles in less than 10 years for Gordon, in 2004 NASCAR changed the way championships were won. What if this never happened? Using the old Winston Cup points (obviously they would have raced differently, but this is a hypothetical), Jeff Gordon would be the 3rd 7x Cup champion in place of real world 7x champ Jimmie Johnson. Gordon would have won again in 2004, 2007 and again for the last time in 2014. 93 wins and 7 championships in the Modern Era would have locked him in as THE greatest of all time. Image Credit: Hendrick Motorsports  What if Kyle Larson had a Hendrick Motorsports ride his whole career- Kyle Larson is without question a generational talent. In 2021 he tied himself with Jimmie Johnson for second most wins in a single season in the modern era at 10 in his first season with a tier 1 Cup Series team at Hendrick Motorsports. But what if? What if Kyle left Chip Ganassi Racing in 2015 and took over at Hendrick for Jeff Gordon?
Larson's rookie season at CGR was the best statistical rookie season in NASCAR Cup Series History, even over Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon. Larson in the 24 car for his career, I think beings him (to this point) Kyle Larson could have 2 championships and based on what he did in CGR equipment, over 30 career Cup Series wins. Image Credit: Taurus Emerald
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 By: Tom Luttermoser Image via CARS Tour Facebook In a public release this morning (can be seen below), The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour will be under new ownership when the series goes back racing in March. The CARS Tour is the South East's premier asphalt late model racing series and in 2023 will take place over 19 weekends across the region. Series ownership will transfer from Series founder Jack McNelly to the respective business holdings of DEJ Management, Kevin Harvick, Inc. Jeff Burton Autosports and TrackHouse Entertainment. Dale Earnhardt Jr said, "This is a dream come true for me." Per the release, McNelly and his staff will continue to oversee track events and operations.  By: Tom Luttermoser Image Via JR Motorsports Twitter
With Dale Jr entering several late model races over the last couple weeks showing his support for local short tracks and grassroots racing, obviously we owe him a huge thank you. It brings local short tracks to the front and center with the average NASCAR fans who otherwise may not know these races happen. Arguably the biggest of these events is the famous Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway down in Florida. Just like every year we see NASCAR drivers from ARCA all the way to Cup run the event with names such as Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones and Chandler Smith being some of the names we've seen over the years. This year is no different with NASCAR being represented very well in the packed field for the 55th annual event being; (as of now)
By: Tom Luttermoser
This NASCAR season has been insane no matter the Series. Broken records, dominations, first winners, first in a long timers. This NASCAR season has also been rejuvenation for others, 3 names stick out to me for drivers who have rebuilt themselves or their careers. Ty Majeski in the Truck Series, Josh Berry in the Xfinity Series and Ross Chastain in the Cup Series. All 3 drivers have had spectacular seasons in 2022 all transforming their lives around the race track. I went to the open house for the defending Camping World Truck Series Champion Ben Rhodes last season at the ThorSport shop in Sandusky, OH. Sitting in the machine shop was Ty Majeski, I recognized him but even the friend I went with did not. Very few of the attendees seemed to know who he was back in December of 2021 and he became arguably the Championship favorite. Although it didn't pan out as he came 4th in the standings, it was still a career season for Majeski with 2 wins and 15 Top-10s. It was total redemption. Before racing brought in enough income, JRM's short track star Josh Berry was a bank teller. Berry Made 5 Xfinity Series starts for the boss Dale Jr from 2014-2016 and a small handful of of starts for other teams in the mean time scoring 2 Top-10s with a best finish of 7th. Berry got his shot though in 2021 racing the #8 and #1 Camaros for Jr scoring his massively popular first win at Martinsville and a second at the late Las Vegas race he wasn't even scheduled to run. Then 2022 marked his first full time season in an Xfinity car where he once again impressed with a Final 4 appearance, 3 wins, 11 top-5s and 20 Top-10s showing that he Is here to stay. Prior to 2022 Ross Chastain has run in the NASCAR Cup Series 114 times only finishing 20th or better 7 times. Ross is a racer, he loves the sport and has proven he can push his equipment to get that checkered flag. But it took years before he could finally bust that first watermelon, and he did it in 2019 at Kansas in the Truck Series. Fast forward a few years to 2021, Ross got his first real shot with a Cup team signing on with Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the 42 car and halfway through an 8 Top-10 season and CGR announced a deal to sell to Rookie team TrackHouse Racing. We never expected to see that team explode onto the scene like they did. Ross managed to bring himself and the Sophomore team to their first ever Cup win at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, then again at the spring race at Talladega. Ross's season was a season of consistency, irritating his fellow drivers and what very well could have been a championship had the chips fallen his way at Phoenix. Let's not forget the "Hail Melon" move at Martinsville in a move that (although it didn't need to happen) locked him into the Final 4 for the first time over season rival Denny Hamlin. With 2 wins, and series leading 15 Top-5s and 21 Top-10s Ross Chastain has reignited his career at just the right time! |
